Ducati Launches MotoGP, WorldSBK Teams in Italy
Gordon Ritchie | January 24, 2024
The combined Ducati Corse WorldSBK and MotoGP team launch took place at the Madonna do Campiglio ski resort in the Italian Dolomites on January 22, 2024, in a copy of the previous season’s doubleheader championship-winning celebration-cum-launch. Just for good measure, the new Ducati MX effort (for now it’s just in the Italian Championship) was also showcased on stage after the MotoGP and WorldSBK machines.
There are a lot of number ones in this photo. Will Ducati retain both the WorldSBK and MotoGP crowns in 2024?
Preceded by a glitzy stage show, the unveiling of the new liveries and latest bikes themselves saw Ducati’s CEO Claudio Domenicali kick off proceedings with a speech in which he touched on some of the reasons to have this event once again, and the 2023 achievements for Ducati. “Last year we presented a season that would be very successful,” said Domenicali. “We are already World Champions in MotoGP and WorldSBK. We were not sure about repeating ourselves, but we repeated it. No company has won both WorldSBK and MotoGP in successive years. The question is, how can we do even better? We concluded a season we are very proud of, not just as Ducati but also [as] Italian people. We are celebrating again [here] in a Ducati way.”
Domenicali also commented on the new WorldSBK technical regulations [as of yet, not fully published], which will see very light riders like Bautista gain some ballast on their bikes compared to 2023, but all Ducati riders will now regain the 500 rpm they lost by the end of last year, under the previous balancing rules—primarily due to Bautista’s remarkable performances in winning his second championship in succession.
“We are living in a world in which the rules have changed,” said Domenicali. “We have won a lot and our competitors will have some advantages. We will find a completely new challenge, which I think will be pretty interesting.”
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